Ex-ABC deputy chair Kristin Ferguson, scribe of this newspaper’s Got A Minute column and our favourite career advice columnist (for once we are not being flippant) also congratulated Kimmitt.
Christine Holgate, the ex-boss of Australia Post, now installed as chief executive at Toll Global Express and keen as mustard for Alan Joyce’s job at Qantas, according to some, was so excited she couldn’t even type straight: “Huge Congratulations Annette we are so prouf (sic) of you!”
Not so effusive, a comment on Kimmitt’s LinkedIn page from an unknown person who labelled themselves: DontComeBackToMinters – Relieved Partner. Some people.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
Bondi power shul Central Synagogue hosted local MP Dave Sharma on Friday evening for a L’Chaim (or a toast) prior to its usual Shabat service. The Wentworth MP was the guest of honour at the establishment temple which includes the likes of mega-developer Harry Triguboff, fashion designer Camilla Freeman-Topper and bi-coastal A-list actor duo Sasha Baron-Cohen and Isla Fisher in its congregation. But as is the way with the uber-connected temple, the pollie’s star was quickly overshadowed by the recent return of one of its own. Westfield founder Frank Lowy – freshly returned from Israel – quickly stole the limelight along with his son Steven. Turns out Sharma and Lowy Snr crossed paths during Sharma’s tenure as Australia’s Ambassador to Israel from 2013 to 2017. Lowy jetted into Sydney during the week and made the special effort to get to the temple to see his old acquaintance.
NORTH AND SOUTH
Regular readers will recall our news last month that elite real estate agency Forbes Global Properties, an offshoot of the elite wealth magazine, had come into being thanks to a gang of four: Ken Jacobs, of Christie’s International Real Estate out of Double Bay in Sydney, Michael Gibson, the former long-time Kay & Burton Melbourne managing director, ex-Ferrari executive Robert Fletcher and Tracey Atkins, founder of Goldeneye Media.
One of its first elite properties the agency is proudly flogging is 1/131 Walsh Street, South Yarra. The three-bedroom, three-bathroom, four car space contemporary residence has a guide of $7.5 million to $8 million. The blue-chip Melbourne boulevard of Walsh Street over the years has been the address of film director Fred Schepisi, businessman Leigh Clifford, apartment developer Michael Yates and the Rupert Murdoch-adjacent Calvert-Jones family.
Interestingly, it is the Sydney-based Jacobs and Fletcher who are the agents for this property, not Mr Melbourne, Gibson himself. Turns out, that’s because the vendor is none other than Kim Gibson, his wife.
Forbes is spruiking the high-end complex, which was designed three years ago by architects Carr Design with Jack Merlo landscaping the gardens. Turns out, the developer on that project was yes, Gibson himself.
Regular devotees of the comings and goings on the nearby Domain Road restaurant strip can rest assured Gibson will not be giving up his coffee perch outside Gilson’s any time soon. Turns out The Gibsons own another property in the same complex and are staying put.
VALE KIMBA
Among her many fine attributes, Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching was good at drinking. We know this because she told us herself when bestowing on us the honour of inviting us out for one. Sadly, her death last week from a heart attack meant that social occasion was never to be.
Kitching had appeared in this modest rectangle several times, most recently when she was bitten on the hand by a venomous brown snake in Brimbank Park in Melbourne last December while aiding her beloved pooch Nancy-Jane. The dog was a cavoodle she named after former American first lady Nancy Reagan and US post-war actress Jane Wyman – the second and first wives of former American president Ronald Reagan.
In honour of the patriot, Francophile and stout rejector of cultural relativism, this column shall be putting on some red lippy, popping some champagne and toasting the exquisiteness of liberal democracy, even while sadly she won’t be able to join us.
